Investing in infrastructure is a wise use of public fundsWe need and deserve the best freeways, streets, bridgesoverpasses, sidewalks, water mains and sewer systems thamoney can buy.

Moreover, infrastructure is a cornerstone of GovArnold Schwarzenegger's plan to revitalize California through improvements in public works. Getting a lot of attention, too, is affordable housingGovernment officials throughout California are already wrestling with it. The problem is obvious for low-income wage earners. Now, however, even those with middle incomes-entry-level teachers, police officers and firefighters, for example-are finding it hard to buy homes in cities where they want to work, places like Simi ValleyIf these people can't afford to live here, they'll be forced to consider jobs in other communities or become commuters on our already gridlocked streets and freewaysThere's also a less noble side. Let's face it: some of us prefer inflated real estate prices for less than honorable reasons. To put it bluntly, expensive housing prevents people of color from moving here.

There are no easy solutions to this dilemma.

Public housing programs, products of lofty goals, were implemented in the 1960s.

They enabled poor people to live in low-cost tenements and apartment buildings, but they generally failed because the complexes too often became dens of crime, places of prostitution and drug abuse.

There is, however, a positive side: we can learn from the past, and Americans have always had a knack for finding answers.

Acknowledging the problem is the first step in correcting it.

We've done that. Now it's time to find the solutions.